Liaison
by ObscureEnough
Summary: Turned instead of killed, Kate ends up working for the IGC, and as liaison in DC.


**Prompt/Prompter:** christywild Buffy/NCIS [Faith/Kate]

**Disclaimer:** Don't own or claim rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or NCIS

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><p>Thirst. Cold. She was cold, and she had a <em>powerful<em> thirst. She scented the air, and surged upwards, her mouth salivating. She gazed around into the day-like night, and found the heartbeat that tempted her, and hunted it down. She didn't stop until the heart did, then dropped the body and wiped her bloody mouth. Coherency returned, and she stilled, understanding intrinsically what she was. And what she no longer could be.

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><p>She watched the man in the street below. She knew what he was, and yet he wasn't exactly that. He was a vampire like her, and yet he was nothing like her. She'd heard of this two-hundred-plus year old vampire, and how he was a Champion for the light, but how could that be? They were vampires, and they were defined by their hunger and their need, yet here he was, not merely fighting his nature, but <em>surrounding<em> himself with his food source. It didn't make sense. In fact, it made as little sense as vampires did to her former life.

She dropped down near to where he stood, and smirked as his human minions swirled away from her. She flashed a fang to show exactly what she was, then ignored them. "Angel, right?" she inquired.

"I'm said to be hard to miss," Angel nodded warily. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"My name's Kate. As to what I want… I want to know what makes you different," she decided.

The woman near Angel snorted. "Oh, yeah. 'Cause souls are a dime a dozen for the fangy types."

"Cordelia," Angel muttered.

Kate frowned. "A soul?" she asked doubtfully. "How does that even work? We don't have souls."

"Duh!" Cordelia snorted.

"Cordelia," Angel hissed. He turned to the men with them. "Take her home," he ordered. When both men looked at him, wide-eyed and doubtful, he turned back to the brunette. "Just go home, will you? I'll see you tomorrow."

Kate watched as Cordelia huffed, rolled her eyes then whirled as stalked off.

Angel shook his head. "I'm going to pay for that tomorrow. And the next day. Pretty much all week," he decided finally. He shrugged. "Even if I lost my soul, there is no way I'm letting her get vamped: she'd be much too scary a vamp, and might just take over the world. So…"

"Souls," Kate nodded. "What do they mean to a vampire, and how do you get one?"

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><p>Tony noted the two women approaching the police officer, ID wallets in hand. Just what they needed, yet another agency involved in this messy multiple murder. "Boss," he hissed as he quickly made his way to Gibbs' side, "we've got intruders.<p>

Gibbs turned and squinted at the women. Both were dark haired, but one was wearing a pant-suit, while the other was wearing dark jeans and a leather jacket. He waited for them to get past the police officer then strode up to them. "This is an NCIS scene, you need to leave," he declared.

The woman in the pant-suit turned her head suddenly. "Gibbs?"

Gibbs stopped, and _gaped_. "Kate?"

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><p>Faith watched the 'friendly welcome' for all of five minutes before she put her Slayer-enhanced lungs to the test and whistled shrilly. "I thought you people were supposed to be adults!" she bellowed. "Now what the hell is the problem here?"<p>

Gibbs glared at Faith. "She's dead," he explained, pointing at Kate.

Faith glanced at Kate, who was looking unusually unwell. "Undead, if you want to be accurate," she shrugged. "Shit," she muttered, "I hate complications."

"Undead," Tony repeated, glancing nervously at Kate. "Like as in vampires?"

"Yes, Tony, I'm a vampire," Kate sighed, "one of the legions of the undead."

"But vampires don't exist," Tony laughed nervously.

"Yet here I am," Kate returned, rolling her eyes.

"You disappeared," Gibbs ground out. "We found your things soaking in your blood in an alley, but there was no body."

Kate clenched her jaw, and looked away. "Ari put out a hit on me," she explained. "It seems that he knew more of the other side of things than any of us did, and he got a vampire to kill me. Except that the vampire turned me instead of just killing me, and then disappeared a few days later. I ended up in LA, which is where I met up with some people, and eventually ended up working with the IGC. I got assigned here on the understanding that I wouldn't be working with any federal organisations," she added, grimacing.

"Should know better than to taunt Murphy, Kate," Tony offered with a slight smile. "He's always going to get you in the end."

"Yeah, yeah," Kate grumbled. "So why are you guys even here?

"Petty officer," Tim waved at the victim. "Why are you guys here?"

"Werewolf," Kate offered.

"Werewolf?" Tony winced.

"Newbie, we think," Kate nodded. "Could even be his or her first cycle. We were hoping to prevent this kind of thing, but we got the call while we were out looking. As it is…" she trailed off as she looked around, Faith coming alert and copying her.

Gibbs and Ziva drew their weapons. "There a problem?" Gibbs asked, frowning.

"Get behind us, and do not engage," Faith instructed as Kate vamped out.

"I so did not need to know vampires existed," Tony moaned as he fell in behind the two women, weapon also drawn.

"You and me both," Tim agreed.

"Hey," Tony brightened, looking around, "maybe you can add vampires and werewolves to your next novel. Turn it into some kind of supernatural/political/thriller kind of thing."

"The point of my stories," Tim frowned, "is that they have some basis in reality."

Tony caught Tim's eye, then glanced at Kate. "And?"

Tim looked at Kate, then at the woman beside her. "Don't be stupid, Tony," he smirked. "Everyone knows vampires don't exist."

"Okay, everyone pipe down now," Faith muttered.

With everyone now quiet, they could hear the sounds of something (or someone) crashing through the trees. Gibbs noticed that while both Kate and Faith were armed, neither had drawn their weapons; they stood loosely ready for action, but apparently not willing to kill. His attention was distracted by a tall, dark-haired man emerging at a full run maybe twenty yards to the South, armed with a rifle of some description. He turned and ran to meet them and, contrary to the women's disposition, he brought his weapon up, ready for use. He skidded to a halt five yards out, and readied himself just in time for … an animal to leap out of the tree-line. Gibbs backed up, gun held high, not entirely sure he could even hit the snarling, spitting creature.

The creature (werewolf?) snarled at Kate and Faith then turned to the North, only to be stopped by … a small, slender redhead who had just stepped out of the tree-line. The small man walked forward slowly, seemingly unintimidated by the werewolf slowly backing away. Finally, it turned to the tall man, who fired even as the werewolf began to move towards him. The creature staggered then fell at the women's feet.

Gibbs looked around at the others before walking forward to investigate the creature slowly changing to human on the ground at Kate's feet. He looked up at his former colleague, turned vampire. "So … werewolf," he mused.

Kate nudged the unconscious man at her feet. "Werewolf," she nodded.

"And you're a vampire," Tony added, frowning.

"Yes, Tony, I'm a vampire," Kate smirked. She patted his cheek. "But don't worry: I don't eat humans any more. I'm a good vampire," she cooed, wide-eyed.

"Great," Tony muttered. "It was bad enough when vampires were just a nightmare. Now we've got werewolves that turn into naked people at our crime scenes. So what about the rest of you?" he added, looking at Kate's team.

Kate glanced at the others, who all seemed to give silent approval. "Okay then," she nodded. "I would like to introduce Faith, the Vampire Slayer, Oz, a werewolf, and Xander, who's a Watcher."

"Okay, so Oz there is a werewolf, I get that, and Faith is someone who hunts vampires?" When he had a nod from the two named, Tony turned to the final person of the group. "So what's a Watcher?" he asked. "Some kind of super-seeing, uh, super-guy?"

Xander laughed. "No, I'm just a plain human. Watcher is kind of like a position in our organisation."

"So what's the difference between you and her?" Tim asked, waving at Faith.

"She can toss me on my ass with _both_ hands tied behind her back," Xander grinned. "But, anyway, we need to get this guy back to base and under wraps before he wakes up again. Kate, if you don't mind?" he prompted, looking at the vampire, who shrugged before grabbing the naked man and draping him over her shoulder.

Tony gaped at the casual display of strength.

"I should probably add that both these women are, like, twice as strong as I am, maybe more," Xander shrugged. "Also, Kate, being a vampire, isn't vulnerable to lycanthropy."

"Huh," Tony grunted.

"So how does this all affect our case?" Gibbs asked, frowning.

"It doesn't," Faith offered. "We just knew the wolf was heading this way, and we had to get here first. Easiest thing to do was take over the crime scene for a few hours, then let you back in. We got what we came for, though, so we can let you guys at it."

"We going to see you again?" Tony asked.

"Professionally," Xander asked, putting his rifle over his shoulder, "you'd want to hope not. Personally is up to Kate and you guys, I guess."

Faith handed a card to Gibbs. "You want to contact us, either way, that's our number."

Gibbs checked the card over, nodded, and put it away. "Tell Kate I'll be in touch."

"You do that," Faith nodded. They began to walk away when Faith turned back. "She talked about you guys, you know," she smiled slightly. "She never forgot you, not even in her bad times."

Gibbs smiled. "We never forgot her, either." He watched the group get into their SUV and drive off, and shook his head. Of all the explanations he'd considered for Kate's disappearance, assassination by vampire had not featured at all. The thought he'd eventually meet her again had become something he let go.

He frowned. How the hell was he going to explain this to Ducky and Abby? "Ah, hell," he muttered, and stomped off to his crime scene.


End file.
